If you’ve been in business long enough and have enough happy, satisfied customers…you’re bound to also have customers that think you’re a jackass. Not all businesses would read a bad review over the PA (Public Address) speaker system, but today we’re gonna do just that. Here's one of my favorite customer complaints…and my reply is not too bad either. -- Mr. Cubic Zirconia 

A little while ago I learned a new word: “affordibauble”. Alright, alright, you got me.  It’s not a real word, so to speak.Here at the shop, we made it up. But this made up word IS "A Word That Saves You Money".

Beyond great entertainment that brought in $170+ million US dollars at the box office globally, few movies have been more influential in stirring a call for change than this 5-time Academy Award nominated film.  For humanity: the world became more aware of the human rights abuses, dangerous labor practices, terrorist funding, money laundering, and environmental destruction wrought by the mined natural diamond industry. For our business: new customers had yet another powerful reason to choose our 5A diamond-quality CubicZirconia.com CZ stones instead of buying a mined, natural diamond. For the marriage-minded, engagement proposal planner with a future fianceé on the fence about choosing natural mined diamonds or an alternative: he/she can simply have a movie night and watch Blood Diamond together (you won’t have to say much, and if you haven’t seen it…he/she will want to talk after watching). 

Today we’re sharing a brief roundup of some of the more common scams, deceptions, manipulations and money-grabbing tactics used by unethical jewelers that give our industry a bad rap. We wanna arm you with the knowledge that each of these common scams and unethical business practices exist...because, once you see it, you can’t UNSEE IT. In some cases, police and governments have gotten involved. But in most cases, it’s up to ethical jewelry companies to call out the bad actors in our industry.  We hope this 5 minute read can give you the info to spot these shenanigans, and we can rest assured that our friends and customers won’t be deceived (again).

Take a look at the Google Trends for “cubic zirconia” (what we make and sell) versus “fake diamond”, “man made diamond” and “artificial diamond”. What's more popular? Fake diamonds Artificial diamonds Man made diamonds Cubic zirconiaHere's what the Google search research says...